Glenn Greenwald takes on Lawrence O’Donnell again
November 12th, 2010 § 1 Comment
A followup to Glenn Greenwald’s debate with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell from last week. Read Greenwald’s final comments here.
London student revolt a sign of things to come
November 12th, 2010 § 1 Comment
by Andy Worthington
They came from all over the country, creating a 50,000-strong throng of students and University lecturers that filled Whitehall. Peaceful but vocal, the protestors were armed only with banners and placards, but at times the noise, as they chanted their opposition to the government’s planned £2.9 bn cut in university funding, was deafening.
I attended the demo for about an hour and a half, and was heartened that so many had turned up. To be frank, every single student in the country should have been there, or they might as well have had ministers turning up at their door asking them to agree that, from today, they will start paying up to £9,000 a year in fees — as opposed to the current rate of £3,290.
There was anger too, as some protestors smashed up Tory HQ on Millbank, while others took to the roof of the building. Some were students, others were not, but predictably, the violence overshadowed the main events of the day in the majority of media reports, and in much of the hand-wringing commentary today. In truth, however, both the massive peaceful demo and the considerably smaller group of violent protestors were indicative of much more unrest to come — and for good reason.
On university education, as on welfare, the coalition government is mounting nothing less than a full-scale assault on the State and on fundamental notions of how British society operates. Critics — either the usual suspects whining about students’ privileges, or the new breed of middle class hypocrites ignoring the fact that their own university educations were subsidized — seem content to accept that university education is not something that contributes to the good of society as a whole, and also to accept, without a murmur, that as a result the axemen of Downing Street should be allowed to impose the most swingeing cuts imaginable.
Joseph Dana at the Palestine Center in Washington
November 11th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Jerusalem based Joseph Dana who has providing important coverage on Israel’s activities in the occupied Palestinian territories was recently featured as a speaker at the excellent Palestine Center in Washington on Tuesday.
(h/t War in Context and be sure to read this excellent write-up by Philip Weiss)
Telling stories in a cage with lions
November 11th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
The following is my translation of an excerpt of a speech delivered by my friend Diego Osorno, Mexican journalist and author of the recent El Cártel de Sinaloa, at the 11th Forum of Biarritz, an annual meeting bringing together European and Latin American politicians, economists, scholars, and members of the media. The subject is freedom of expression.
The most important trench in the current battle for freedom of expression in Latin America is not Cuba, Venezuela, or Argentina; it’s Mexico. The Mexican case is distinct from the rest of the region in that what is at stake is the ability of Mexicans to share with fellow citizens their views on what is taking place in the country. Nowhere else on the continent is more blood shed due to the exercise of the very right [to freedom of expression] that has brought us to the discussion table today. In my country, reporters drop like flies and journalism—rather than being the greatest occupation in the world—is in danger of extinction.
Sixty-four journalists have been assassinated, 20 or so have been kidnapped and are perhaps already dead, and almost a thousand have been victims of physical aggression ranging from being struck in the head with a pistol to having grenades explode at their office door. All of this has occurred in the past decade, and the trend is on the rise. Added to these statistics of despair, which are backed up by various national and international organizations, is the indeterminate number of media employees who have quit their jobs out of fear of being victims of that unfathomable fate that today governs certain parts of the country.
Gary Younge on the Great American Divide
November 11th, 2010 § 1 Comment
Author and journalist Gary Younge speaks to average Americans about the issues they consider important for this year’s midterm elections during a Barack Obama rally in Las Vegas. While the clip is a week old it accurately displays the extent to which anger and misconception informs political debate among potential voters in the US today.
UK students protest over university fees
November 10th, 2010 § 1 Comment
Finally, something stirs.
Tens of thousands of students are protesting against plans by the British government to raise university tuition fees, smashing windows and lighting fires in London, the capital. Wednesday’s protest near the houses of parliament is the largest street demonstration in the country since the government announced tough austerity measures to curb public deficit. Students attempted to force their way into the party headquarters of David Cameron, the prime minister, forcing the building to be evacuated.
Coup University: SOUTHCOM and FIU Team Up on Counterinsurgency
November 10th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
by Adrienne Pine
As it has done with great success throughout the past century, the U.S. military continues to find ways to use the academy and anthropological concepts to whitewash its imperialist actions in the service of U.S. corporate profits. In Latin America from 1963-1965, Project Camelot set a dark precedent for the use of social science to abet and legitimate counterinsurgency operations including psychological warfare. Now, the U.S. Military’s Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), the Pentagon’s arm in Latin America and responsible for all U.S. bases the region, and Florida International University (FIU) have partnered in the creation of a so-called “Strategic Culture” Initiative, a center that hosts workshops and issues reports on the “strategic culture” of different Latin American countries. At present, reports have been issued from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru, and Venezuela.
On its website, the FIU-SOUTHCOM initiative defines strategic culture as “the combination of internal and external influences and experiences – geographic, historical, cultural, economic, political and military – that shape and influence the way a country understands its relationship to the rest of the world, and how a state will behave in the international community.” However, from a look at their reports it is clear that a more accurate definition would be “strategic propaganda for the creation of hegemonic political ideology favorable to U.S. economic and military interests.” Here is an excerpt from the Peru report:
The elements of the new strategic culture, if it continues to emerge, will be to end or reduce the plaintive note of victim-hood in discussion of the nation’s role in world affairs. Ironically, Chile will become the model for the new Peruvian strategic culture – focused on the successes of economic growth, political stability, and an honest effort to incorporate peripheral regions and marginal groups into national life. Peru, more than Chile, can base its national pride on multi-ethnic assimilation. This new national integration, along with the openness to trade and investment will be the principal components of Peru’s new soft power…Peru will join Brazil and Chile as bulwarks of democracy and open economies, set as an example against the archaic rhetoric and self-defeating economic autarchy of the Bolivarian alliance.
Yom Kippur
November 9th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Summer Mist in Nablus
“Have you visited Afghanistan? Pakistan? Yemen? Do you have a weapon? Do you have a credit card? Give us your email address. Do you know anyone in Israel? Do you know anyone in Jordan? What is your novel about? What did you do yesterday?”
It only took an hour and a half to get through the border. They were closing early because it was Yom Kippur, yowm al-ghafran in Arabic, the Day of Atonement.
The driver who met me said he couldn’t go to Nablus, not now, it was getting too late, because the car had Israeli plates and settlers were throwing stones, he could take me to Ramallah instead, although it was further.
“Won’t we be alright with Israeli plates?”
“We need Palestinian plates. They’re throwing stones at Israeli cars because they don’t want Jews driving on the holiday.”
So we went to Ramallah, south through the West Bank. We drove down the confiscated Jordan valley. A couple of memorials to settlers shot here during the Second Intifada were set up at the roadside. To our east, closed military zones and then the hills of Jordan rising. To the west, ochre desert mountains and hardly any habitation.
Letter to the Co-op
November 9th, 2010 § 4 Comments
I wrote to the Co-op to ask them to stop stocking Israeli goods. Their reply is below, followed by my reply to their reply. Readers, please feel free to adapt my letter, and send your own.
Thank you for your enquiry about the Co-operative’s stance on stocking products sourced from Israel.
Biden is not taking it personally
November 9th, 2010 § 1 Comment
VP takes another one for the team
I sometimes worry about Philip J. Crowley, assistant secretary for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Public Affairs and emcee of the department’s Daily Press Briefings. Do his work habits adversely affect his behavior outside the office? For example, when asked at the supermarket whether he would prefer paper or plastic, does he say it’s too early to tell and revert to a discussion of U.S. commitment to direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians?
Crowley’s latest acrobatics occurred during yesterday’s briefing, when he responded to an observation by a member of the press regarding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the U.S. and the announcement of Israeli plans to construct 1,300 homes in East Jerusalem, now augmented by a plan to construct 800 additional homes in the West Bank settlement of Ariel:
QUESTIONER: …It seems that every time there is visitor, a high caliber visitor, be it an American visitor to Israel or an Israeli visitor to the United States, there seems to be an announcement of building settlements.
CROWLEY: Well, I don’t think the Vice President’s taking this personally.
